Paris-Nice respected its nickname The race to the sun this afternoon with the finish in Nice under a blue and sunny sky. On the Promenade des Anglais Amaël Moinard finished first in the sprint with Thomas Voeckler while Alberto Contador wins the second Paris-Nice of his career, after 2007.

A summary of yesterday's stage, between Peynier and Tourrettes-sur-Loup and today's stage on the circuit around Nice, with the first photos of these stages (the other photos will be published in the next few days!).

Spain's empire, the revelation Peter Sagan

If one should summarise Paris-Nice 2010 in a few words, we would definitely mention the Spanish domination of this 68th edition of the Race to the sun with no less than 5 places in the top 10 occupied by France's southern neighbours (of which the 3 first places for Alberto Contador [Astana], Alejandro Valverde [Caisse d'Epargne] and ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 6621x

The youngest rider of the peloton of Paris-Nice 2010, Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo), already winner on Wednesday in Aurillac, does it again today with a new stage victory in Aix-en-Provence. El Pistolero keeps the yellow jersey.

Summary of the stage

Serge Pauwels (Team Sky) didn't come to the start in Pernes-les-Fontaines this morning and Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) left the race quickly after the start, followed a bit later by Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas-Doimo), Dennis van Winden (Rabobank) and Daniel Moreno (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

The 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2010 took place today between Maurs and Mende, over a distance of 173.5 kilometers. The stage was quite similar to the one between those two cities in 2007 and in the end ... the winner was the same as well: Alberto Contador (Astana)!
While he had to wait until the very last day in 2007 to take the yellow jersey, the Spanish rider is now already leading this Race to the sun.

A summary of the stage Maurs > Mende

As usual in this Paris-Nice 2010, a leading group was formed early in the stage, firstly at kilometer 6 with Yaroslav Popovych (Team Radioshack) and Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The two leading riders quickly got company from Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano), who was already at the front of 2 other stages of ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 2146x

The stage from Saint-Junien Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche to Aurillac, disturbed by the snow, was won by the young Slovakian rider (he's only 20 years old) Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo). Lars Boom, who finished 27 secondes loses his yellow jersey to the oldest rider of the race, the German rider Jens Voigt of Team Saxo Bank.

A summary of the stage Saint-Junien > Aurillac

This morning the start in Saint-Junien was a bit special ... indeed, with the snow which fell in the morning and with the temperatures below 0°C the roads around the city had become slippery. Therefore, the organiser decided to let the stage start in Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche at 53 kilometers from where the start was initially planned and to remove the first intermediate sprint which would have been in Coussac-Bonneval (since the distance from the start became too small). That's why the riders left with the team buses after the signature towards the start of the stage and ...> Read the whole story | 4 comments | shown 2209x

The second stage of Paris-Nice, from Contres to Limoges, was 201 kilometers long and had three climbs: the Côte de Saint-Aignan (2 km @ 3%), the Côte de Maison Neuve (1,1 km @ 6,1%) and the Côte de Nieul (2,8 km @ 3,9%). 172 riders came to the start after Fredrik Kessiakoff (Garmin-Transitions)'s abandon yesterday and with two riders who didn't start today: Simone Ponzi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Danilo Napolitano (Team Katusha).

The riders again had to face very low temperatures today, but Lars Boom (Rabobank), used to the cold at the cyclo-cross, is still leading the general classification. The breakaway group didn't stay ahead until the finish and only a fall in Limoges changed the casting for the final sprint which was won by William Bonnet (Bbox Bouygues Telecom).

Today the riders connected Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines to Contres in 201.5 kilometers in the first stage of Paris-Nice 2010. The stage victory was for Greg Henderson (Team Sky) since, just like in the Cancer Council Classic of the Tour Down Under 2010, Henderson crossed the finish line first after the sprint.

In this article you'll find a resume of the stage and the classifications after this first stage. Lars Boom (Rabobank) will still wear the yellow leader's jersey tomorrow at the start of the stage towards Limoges. ...

Where everyone was expecting some Spanish fireworks, it finally ended in a Dutch party with Lars Boom (Rabobank) taking not only the stage victory but also all jerseys.

The sky was clear and the sun was shining but the temperatures didn't go higher than 3 to 4 degrees Celsius. While the riders were complaing about the cold wind (I confirm, it was very cold!) at the start, which reduced the effect of their warming up, they really only felt it in the last 2 kilometers towards the finish because they had it blowing in their face there ... ...

The 22 participating teams currently present their lists of participating riders for this 68th edition of the Race to the sun and in this article you can find the list of participants. This article will be updated with their numbers once they've been announced by the organiser of the race, A.S.O.

In this article you'll find, as usual, all details of the route including the route and time schedules (itinéraires horaires), the stage profiles of all stages and of course the route of this 68th edition of the Race to the sun on Google Maps/Google Earth!

In another article you'll soon be able to discover the 22 participating teams for Paris-Nice 2010 with their leaders and the sponsors of the race. In contrast to what was announced before, Luis Léon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne), who ...

While the rumours were floating around since a few weeks now, A.S.O. today officially announced the cities which will receive the 68th edition of Paris-Nice in 2010.
In March 2009 I already announced that Paris-Nice 2010 would start from the Yvelines department, today we had the confirmation that the start will be in Montfort-l'Amaury, not far from the Vallée de Chevreuse.

This article will allow you to discover all details of the Paris-Nice 2010 route! This edition of Paris-Nice will take place from 7 till 14 March 2010.